DOCBOOK: Re: New element for Step alternatives?

[Norman Walsh <ndw at nwalsh dot com>]

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/ Steve Cogorno <cogorno@village.eng.sun.com> was heard to say:
| Norman Walsh said:
|> If you don't allow stepalternatives at the top level, you've made the
|> first step in a procedure different from all the other steps. I don't
|> see any compelling reason to do that.
|
| Please excuse me for jumping in the middle of this discussion mid-stream,
| especially on my first posting to the DocBook alias.  Now that I am
| representing Sun Microsytems, I'd like to clarify a bit what we were asking
| for in proposing the step alternatives.

Hi Steve! :-)

|> I don't see how that's the case. If procedure is:
|> 
|> <!ELEMENT procedure (..stuff.., (step+|stepalternatives))>
|
| The model we proposed was:
|
|   <!ELEMENT procedure (...stuff..., (step+))>
|   <!ELEMENT step (...stuff..., stepalternatives?))>

Where do substeps fit in? And do you really think it's wrong to allow
stepalternatives at the top level?

| Here's an psuedo-example that demonstrates the need that we have:
|
|   1. Create a new user account on the system.
|   2. Set the password for this account using one of the following
|      methods:
|      - Using the administration GUI, select "Set Password."
|      - Modify the /etc/shadow file to contain the new password.

Right. I think that's probably:

  <procedure>
    <step>Create a new user account on the system.</step>
    <step>Set the password for this account using one of the following
          methods:
      <stepalternatives>
        <step>Using the administration GUI, select "Set Password."</step>
        <step>Modify the /etc/shadow file to contain the new password.</step>
      </stepalternatives>
    </step>
  </procedure>

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

- -- 
Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>      | To create a little flower is the
http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/ | labour of ages.--Blake
Chair, DocBook Technical Committee |
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